THE DANGERS OF TAP WATER
THE DANGERS OF TAP WATER
During my freshman year of college in 2015, I was required to present an informative speech in a public speaking class.
So, I got online and googled major world problems and stumbled upon our water problems of our globalized world.
My “first” encounter with fluoride
This is when I realized how bad water pollution was getting. But as I dug deeper, I began to discover more about how our “treated” water is ALSO a major threat to the public’s health.
It didn’t make sense at first, but as I learned more about how our water is treated, it all started to come together.
This is when I first learned about fluoride.
If you don’t know what fluoride is, don’t worry, you’re surely not alone.
That’s why you’re here
Fluoride is one of the most toxic chemicals we know of. It is regularly added to our tap water by most local municipalities, including my own county of Athens, Ohio. This is all a part of the protocol our government deems necessary.
This process is referred to as water fluoridation.
The government’s reasons for fluoridating our water supply
The government’s purpose for fluoridation is to “help fight tooth decay” due to fluoride’s proven ability to fight tooth decay when used as a TOPICAL treatment for our teeth, making our teeth more resistant to acid attacks from the sugars and plaque in our mouths.
However, when we drink tap water, or eat items that contain tap water, the added fluoride will only make contact with our teeth for a limited amount of time.
It spends the rest of it’s life being digested by us. This is when the trouble begins..
When you discuss systematic fluoride treatments, such as water fluoridation, many dentists have different opinions on whether or not digested fluoride helps incorporate itself into our dental plaque and contribute to the remineralization of our teeth.
This makes it hard to depict whether or not you need fluoride to be present in your drinking water.
On another note, many dentists agree that fluoride isn’t a necessity, and that it’s okay to use as a topical treatment for preventive measures.
What exactly are topical treatments?
You may or may not be aware that fluoride is also one of the active ingredients used in most toothpastes.
Toothpastes are the main topical treatment we use.
If you look closely, you can also see that they’re obligated to warn you to call poison control if a child (or adult) accidentally swallows any of his/her toothpaste.
Poison control? Really?
This is why their have been more and more companies adopting fluoride-less toothpastes.
I’m currently using HEALTHY MOUTH by JASON.
Many dentists agree that there isn’t much difference between the toothpastes, and agree that the mechanical motion of brushing your teeth is the most important act for keeping plaque from building.
So, if fluoride doesn’t make a noticeable difference within toothpastes, how will fluoridated water help us fight plaque better?
It won’t.
The highest daily intake that doesn’t pose a threat to our health is 10mg/day for most people, which is equal to 10 liters of fluoridated tap water. For infants to children around the age 8, it is around 0.7 mg/day to 2.2 mg/day according to these reports by the USDA.
That means that if you were to drink more than 2 gallon of water, you’d be recommended to call poison control.
That doesn’t seem right..
Also, the World Health Organization stated that “in areas that have naturally occurring high levels of fluoride in groundwater which is used for drinking water, dental and skeletal fluorosis can be severe.
Meaning, when people drink water that contains too much fluoride, their teeth begin to discolor and create opaque white patches on the enamel. In some cases, physical damage is caused to your teeth.
The National Institutes of Health stated here that fluorosis prevalence in high fluoride areas was 59% while in normal fluoride areas it was 39%.
Their reports shows that as the problem of dental fluorosis increased with passage of time suggests that the “fluoride content in the water has perhaps increased over time”.
With this in mind, let’s remember to do our best to stay away from consuming tap water.
The solution
Purified water is the solution to this problem.
Most bottles of purified water are okay for us to drink, but due to it’s environmental impact, it’s far from being our best option.
After buying water bottles for the past 2 years, I’ve recently decided to buy a reverse osmosis machine. This machine takes out all the heavy metals that are present in our tap water, along with removing the added fluoride.
We placed it under my kitchen sink and it that holds a 3 gallon reservoir of purified water at all times.
The reverse osmosis machine I bought is sitting around $250, at the moment. But after less than a year, the investment will pay itself back from me not being required to buy cases of bottled water
Overall, my carbon-footprint has lowered and I’m no longer drinking fluoridated water that contains heavy metals.
If you wish to learn more about the harmful effects of fluoride, you should check out my Is Fluoride Bad For You post.
I hope this post gave you some useful insight on how our public water is treated, and how YOU are in control of whether or not you consume fluoride.
As always, thanks for reading! And if you have any questions of fluoride or anything else, be sure to contact me and subscribe to this website with the form below.
Much Love!